Immigrant rights groups express concern about sanctuary city raids

Immigrant rights groups are concerned that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is targeting sanctuary cities.

Sanctuary regions are jurisdictions in which local law enforcement agencies focus on public safety instead of on immigration enforcement.

In late September, ICE arrested 498 undocumented immigrants in a nationwide operation that focused on sanctuary cities, or cities and counties that refuse to employ peace officers as immigration agents, according to Orange County Register.

ICE officials said that they were targeting criminal aliens. However, of those detained during the sanctuary city raids, 181 did not have criminal records, reported the Orange County Register.

In Boston, city officials had told the community that immigration raids would not happen. However, ICE rounded up 50 undocumented individuals throughout Massachusetts. Of the individuals detained, 20 had no criminal record, reported WBUR News.

“Our communities are facing a crisis in the U.S. We are tired of that dynamic and rhetoric that is telling us that all immigrants are criminals,” said Patricia Montes, the executive director of Centro Presente, an immigrant advocacy organization located in East Boston.

ICE officials specified that they targeted cities that refuse to cooperate with the president’s immigration policy, reported the Orange County Register.

“They are targeting criminal aliens, and they are focused on high populations of individuals that are here illegally,” said Robin Hvidston, the executive director of We the People Rising, an anti-illegal immigration group in Claremont.

However, immigration advocates across the country say that the raids are doing more harm than good because innocent people are getting caught in the net.

“I know a lot of people that don’t have papers, so it’s kind of sad that they’re afraid of going out of the house,” said Bernice Maldonado, a hairdresser from Boston. “They’re afraid of going to work. They’re afraid of taking the kids to school. They’re afraid of being outside of the house.”

In Los Angeles there were more than 100 arrested. Although ICE officials said that they were targeting immigrants with criminal records, opponents claim there is a political agenda, according to the Orange County Register.

“ICE is operating as a politicized security force … arresting 498 people in cities that represent the political opposition to what is an unconstitutional federal overreach on immigration,” said Salvador Sarmiento, a campaign coordinator for the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborers Organizing Network.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte had introduced the “No Sanctuary for Criminals Act” earlier this year. It would have punished sanctuary jurisdictions for interfering with President Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations and border security, according to TheAtlantic. The act would have cut some federal grants from sanctuary cities.

ICE Acting Director Tom Homan said that the agency is forced to use more resources to conduct large arrests in the communities because sanctuary city officials often do not cooperate with them, according to the Orange County Register.

“Instead of criminalizing and scapegoating immigrants, Congress should be offering workable comprehensive reforms that actually strengthen our economy and national security,” said Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, according to The Atlantic. “Until then, we will continue to be a firm wall of resistance—using all tools at our disposal—to prevent Republicans from blindly trying to sanction this administration’s mass deportation agenda.”